Large area lighting panels employing thin light guides with edge lit end surfaces are known. Many of these large area lighting panels have in common the fact that they do not have a uniform thickness, which is desirable in many applications, such as back-lighting of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) for pagers, hand-held and portable computers, organizers, and the like. In addition, they are not as easily and inexpensively manufactured as are uniformly thin panels. Many large area lighting panels do not provide uniform light. This drawback is overcome to some degree by using a diffuser between the lighting panel and the display; however, this increases the thickness and the cost of the lighting panel. In some large area lighting panels, several individual sources project light into the guide. In some instances, this results in striations of the observed light emitted by the panel.